Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

/ Ed Armstrong
We woke up today in the train station in Mpaka, Eswatini. After breakfast, we met this gentleman named Clement. He was our guide for the day in Eswatini. Eswatini is a small country, but it was great to visit. Clement told us all about the history and culture of Eswatini. He was quite entertaining too. He called cattle walking in the highway an “Eswatini traffic lights.” It was wonderful to talk with him!!

We started our day by first going to the Swazi Candles. We watched them make a series of candles by hand. I watched them create an elephant right in front of us.

They has a series of talented people making all kinds of candles!!

I liked out this globe candle looked like animal skin.

I cannot seem to get enough of the African elephants!!

We next went to the Mantenga Cultural Village. They recreated a typical Eswatini village and our guide told us about many of their customs.

To me, the most impressive aspect was watching the dances and songs sung by these men and women!! There harmonies were incredible and vibrant!

The men were intense with their dances!

The women’s’ voices were amazing!

Here, this man in the center led the other men in a song!

The percussion drums were loud and these men were intense in their dance!

It was amazing to watch how graceful this woman would move to the beat of the drums!

It was unbelievable how high and fast these women would kick their feet. They did it all to the drum beat you could feel in your bones. It was simply amazing to watch them dance!!

This guy was the only person dressed like this and he was very focused on dancing precisely to the beat of the drums!

This dancer would jump high into the air with a tremendous force with his movement!!

It was a delight to watch these dancers move to the beat of the drums!!

When these men kicked during their dance, there was power in their movements!!

The women quickly followed with their beautiful harmonies! It was mesmerizing!!

I really enjoyed listening to this woman when she would lead a part of a song! It was quite beautiful!!
These men were very talented!

It was such a pleasure to listen to these people sing songs important to their culture!!

The music was awesome!!

After their performance, they were very happy to talk with me and warmly agreed for me to take their photo!!

This woman had a wonderful voice. Sometimes she lead the women in a song and then the other women would follow her words.

This woman had an incredible voice!! She is the person that usually lead the women in songs. I am guessing that she was their leader. Afterwards, I told her that I thought she must have the most beautiful voice in all of Africa. She smiled at the compliment.

For lunch, we went to the Mantenga Lodge and ate under a covered patio and enjoyed looking at this beautiful mountain. Eswatini may be small, but it is a beautiful country!!

After a full day excursion, we headed back to the train (90 minutes away). When we return from an excursion, the train staff always greet us with a cool, moist towel to wash our hands and faces.

They next offer us a cool drink!! I always, always select the champagne from South Africa!! It is wonderful and refreshing!!

The train staff treat us very well and, literally, give us a red carpet to walk on as we enter the train!! I now understand why people say that train travel is a great way to see Africa. Time for a quick shower and then enjoy dinner that is four courses every evening. One wine with the appetizer, another wine with the main entree, and a desert liqueur. A cheese plate is served just before the dessert. The wines are always from South Africa, while the liqueurs are from around the world. Every day has been amazing!!